At 12:20pm this afternoon the Philadelphia Eagles will officially open their team to the public. Head coach Chip Kelly will address the media moments before that at exactly 12:05pm and you can believe there will be an overflow of media there to capture everything that is said by Kelly and everything that occurs on the field in that 10 to 15 to 20 minute window which is opened for us.
The head coach will get questions about Sam Bradford and his health. He will get the same questions about Kiko Alonso, DeMeco Ryans and all the other players who are recovering from injuries. Kelly will also get questions about the comments LeSean McCoy made about him and race.
Kelly will only allow us to video tape the individual segment of practice, which should last about 15 minutes.
Jeff McLane of Philly.com has already reported this morning that the number subject for our viewing will not occur. I’m talking about Eagles new quarterback Sam Bradford. He won’t be working out in front of the media.
I’m not surprised. All of the Eagles receivers have told us that Bradford has been throwing, in fact he told us that at his first news conference, but I don’t know if he has been dropping into the pocket and throwing. Even the few steps Bradford will need to take in the spread offense is serious when you’re coming off of a ACL tear. They probably don’t think he’s ready to be doing any movements in front of the media. They don’t want to show him to the media until he’s looking impressive.
New Eagles running backs DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews will be the next focal points. We will see them only in individual drills so we’re not really going to see them running plays and executing the offense. They will be working on the individual tasks involved in being a running backs such as taking handoffs, changing direction, cutting through cones, and catching the football out of he backfield. We won’t really learn much from their part of the workout.
I’m most interested in seeing the defensive backs and the wide receivers. We won’t see them going against each other but we be able to check out how they move. I want to see new defensive backs Byron Maxwell and rookie Eric Rowe. Which one of them is bigger? Which one of them moves the smoothest when it comes to changing direction?
They may work on the most important part of the cornerbacks’ jobs here in Philly, which will be jamming wide receivers as they come off the line of scrimmage. Can Rowe get his hands on the receivers as well as Maxwell, Brandon Boykin, Nolan Carroll, Walter Thurmond or will he look like a rookie in comparison?
The battle at safety is a very important one, so I want to see the size comparisons and skills sets of Earl Wolff, Ed Reynolds, Randall Evans, E.J. Biggers, Chris Maragos, Chris Prosinski and Jerome Coupling as they battle for that starting safety spot next to Malcolm Jenkins in the Eagles defensive backfield.
I want to see rookie wide receiver Nelson Agholor catch the football or run pass routes next to second-year wideouts Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff. Which one is faster, and which one is quicker in and out of their cuts? Which one of those guys has the softer hands?
Will we get the chance to see Kiko Alonso working with the linebackers? How far along is DeMeco Ryans in his rehab? He’s still recovering from the knee surgery he underwent a year ago.
